Mr. Jun Godornes, Resource Development Director of World Vision in the
Philippines, Mr. Rommel Fuerte, Executive Director of World Vision in the
Philippines, Ms. Gretchen Ho, World Vision Ambassador for Social Innovation
Challenge, Ms. Diane Romero, Executive Director of J. Amado Araneta Foundation,
and Mr. John Aguila, Executive Producer and Host of CNN Philippines’ The Final
Pitch.
World Vision is seeking out creative Filipinos to create the most
meaningful solutions to some of the country’s overlooked community challenges.
The child-focused organization’s latest project, the Social Innovation
Challenge, is allowing innovators all over the country the opportunity to
compete for seed capital to fund ideas that address obstacles faced by Filipino
communities.
For this year’s edition of the challenge, World Vision is putting the
focus on two community problems: (Challenge #1) climate change effects on soil
that hurt the livelihood of almost 1,000 farming households in Sogod, Cebu¸ a
small upland barangay where almost 50% of the population depends on
agriculture; and (Challenge #2) 500 out-of-school youth in Brgy. Bucana, Davao
City due to their families' lack of sustainable livelihood.
These challenges were identified using the human-centered approach that
focuses on the families and communities, through various in-depth interviews,
focused group discussions, user journey mapping, secondary studies, and other research
and validation tools.
The finalists of the challenge, composed of students and professionals
from the developmental sector, will vie to have their ideas implemented. Three
teams will compete for each challenge.
For the agriculture-focused Challenge #1, the participating teams are: Ato
Ani (represented by Maria Wilvenna Añora, Venecia Añora, and Kent Vincent
Añora), a Bohol-based social enterprise that makes and distributes organic
fresh produce and processed organic food products; agribusiness Plantsville
(represented by November "Tina" Canieso-Yeo), which seeks to engage
the Cabalawan youth in natural farming and entrepreneurship, teaching them ways
of lessor-tiller land use to improve agriculture image, link to social media
and leverage on ICT in agriculture; and Tagani (represented by Kevin Cuevas and Josin
Macastac), an online application that connects farmers with buyers for
the direct sale of their produce. Its extension, the Tagani Plus, serves as a
farm management and analytics mobile app.
The participating teams who will be ideating
solutions for out-of-school youths in Brgy. Bucana, Davao for Challenge #2 are:
Edukasyon.ph (represented by Patricia Matias, Ria Tagle, Jose Soberano, Pam
Suanco, Cristina Batalla), an organization that aims to develop an online
portal specifically tailored for OSY (out-of-shool youths) providing
information on both job and skills training opportunities; Quatro (represented
by Daniel Galang, Sophia Salen, Aljay Bermejo, and Paul Dela, all students from
De La Salle College of St. Benilde), a group seeking to create both livelihood and scholarship opportunities
for out-of-school youth; and lastly, Sora (represented by Juan Dalisay
and Jan Matthew Rafol), a social apprenticeship training program designed to
give out-of-school youth basic education, useful skills, apprenticeship, and
possible hiring.
The finalists underwent a three-day long bootcamp, facilitated by
British Council Active Citizens to ensure their ideas are well-formed and
pertinent for eventual application to the communities of Sogod, Cebu and Brgy.
Bucana, Davao. Aside from a seed money for implementation, the winning entry
will win a cash prize.
Aside from ideation, the finalists want to
encourage more people to take action in advocacies for environment and
education.
“It’s a personal
advocacy so we’re highly involved in organic culture and, as much as possible,
we wanted more people to be involved in agriculture,” Maria Wilvenna
Añora of Ato Ani, finalist for Challenge #1, said.
“We want to make education
accessible for everyone because there are people left behind. And, with this
challenge, it’s specific to out-of-school youth in Davao, we can really do that
and learn how to scale it up in other communities as well,” said Pam Suanco
of Edukasyon.ph, finalist for Challenge #2.
A panel of multi-sectoral experts will evaluate the entries to choose
proposals that have positive social and economic consequences, financial
sustainability and an environment-friendly purpose. These esteemed judges are
Ms. Gretchen Ho, World Vision Ambassador for Social Innovation Challenge, Mr.
John Aguilar of CNN Philippines' The Final Pitch, Ms. Abigail Mapua-Cabanilla
of the Hub of Innovation for Inclusion, and Ms. Christine Diane Romero of J.
Amado Araneta Foundation among others.
“I believe that each one of
us can make a change in our own ways. World Vision’s Social Innovation
Challenge is a welcome platform for Filipinos in creating a difference through
their innovative solutions”, said Mr. Rommel V. Fuerte, Executive Director of World
Vision in the Philippines.
“With the help of our
exceptional list of partners and mentors, our finalists are honed to help the residents
of Sogod, Cebu, and Brgy. Bucana, Davao. I am amazed to see this competition
transform into a collaborative project, a fitting representation of what we are
always pushing for at World Vision.”
About
World Vision
World Vision is a global Christian relief,
development and advocacy organization dedicated to working with children,
families and communities to overcome poverty and injustice. World Vision serves
all people, regardless of religion, race, ethnicity, or gender.
No comments:
Post a Comment